Afghanistan’s long-standing struggle with prisoner releases looks like it may finally be resolved. The Afghan government has agreed, with the blessing of the Loya Jirga, to release the last 400 prisoners, who were referred to as “hard-core Taliban.”
The Loya Jirga endorsement was the last obstacle, and the Taliban welcomed the move, saying they are now willing to begin intra-Afghan talks on the post-US power-sharing situation. The Taliban are hoping talks begin in the next 10 days.
There seems to be no obstacle to that anymore, with prisoners released and the Afghan election resolved in such a way as to give Abdullah Abdullah control over negotiations, finally answering the question of who the Taliban will be talking to.
The prisoner releases were meant to come after the US peace deal, but the Afghan government never approved of them, and it took months of arguing to get around to the current situation, where talks now seem very likely.
Skip to content
Original and up-to-date news